STRIVR, a leader in immersive virtual reality (VR) training, announced a $16-million round of financing led by GreatPoint Ventures (GPV) to advance the company’s expansion into the enterprise market. With this investment, GPV Managing Partner Ray Lane also joined the company’s Board of Directors.

“In a world rapidly shifting to asset performance and predictive analytics, human capital has been largely ignored with outdated training and development tools,” said Lane. “STRIVR offers companies like Walmart real-world, immersive experiences utilizing VR to place employees into their actual work environments to be trained, affecting their ability to drive both workforce development and retention.”

A fast-growing list of enterprise customers including JetBlue, Fidelity, Tyson Foods and United Rentals are also working with STRIVR to innovate and transform employee learning. Results from these innovations are being realized quickly, as evidenced by Tyson Foods in its general safety/hazard awareness training. In the initial pilot, the company experienced a more than 20% reduction in injuries and illnesses compared to the year prior, with 89% of learners saying they felt more prepared after VR training.

“This is a critical time at STRIVR and we are beyond-excited about GreatPoint Ventures’ investment,” said Derek Belch, CEO, STRIVR. “Ray and his team bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help us effectively operate at scale as we expand in the enterprise space – and we’re humbled by the belief in our team and our winning approach to helping customers take learning and training to new heights.”

To support STRIVR’s growing base of customers, the company has now also opened offices in New York, Seattle, and Nashville, TN in addition to its existing offices in Los Angeles and Menlo Park, CA.

Ryan Nelson is a digital entrepreneur who is actively involved in the reality technologies space. His interests include emerging technologies such as MR/AR/VR, Blockchain, and AI. Ryan is based in Los Angeles, California.

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